


we are with you

by siringiri



Series: Mystery of the Millennium [5]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Ghosts, I'm Bad At Summaries, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 14:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19792690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siringiri/pseuds/siringiri
Summary: Renjun is given a chance to make a change for his life. Not anything big, but it will probably be for the better.(might change the summary later)





	we are with you

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, it's been a really long time since I wrote anything for this series... I have come back rusty again but at least still alive and kicking? I've been planning the whole series since back then ofc but I just got only one finished already. Lots of things have happened that really made me lose opportunity and willpower to continue this series, so idk either how I got this out again? I guess because Dreamies are coming back again that makes me get up to write more? That means they have to make comebacks more often for the sake of this series. (but then the 00s will soon graduate from dream... How are 3/4 of them going to come back then? SM you better do something about this)
> 
> Anyway, thank you everyone for all the kudos and comments even from the previous fics! Sorry for the long wait too if you're still waiting for this series and I hope you enjoy!

“Hey, Injun.”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking if it’d be better if you… move into my apartment.”

“What?”

“What?” Donghyuck has a look of surprise on his face. He leans his face forward. “You moving into the apartment of the superheroes? That’s like a dream come true for a Candy like you!”

“What do you mean by ‘Candy’?” Renjun pulls back a bit from his best friend and looks at the said best friend with one raised eyebrow.

“You don’t know Candy? That— you know what, never mind. What I’m talking about is, they’re probably living off much better than you are, and you should grab the chance when it’s laid in front of you.” Donghyuck makes such big gestures with his hands as he speaks.

“That makes me horribly sound like a gold digger.”

Donghyuck grabs the edge of the table on Renjun’s side, shooting pleading looks at his best friend. “So what? Did you just say no?”

Renjun tries really hard to look very nonchalant before he answers, “I just said I’ll think about it.”

“Oh.” Donghyuck looks like he’s finally calming down. “So you didn’t just blatantly say no to that offer after all.”

“What are you guys up to?”

Renjun and Donghyuck’s conversation ceases to silence once Jisung appears near their usual table in the cafeteria. He takes his usual seat next to Donghyuck and puts his phone on the table. “You guys seemed to be like, in a very intense conversation. You’re not... planning on killing someone, right?”

Donghyuck makes a very unnatural laughing sound that hurts Jisung’s ear right away (seen from the younger’s flinching) and wraps his arm around his cousin. “Why would we ever want to plan on killing anyone? That’s such a cute accusation you have there.”

“Let go of me!” At the same time, Jisung’s phone lights up and vibrates for a few times. Donghyuck gets a little peek at the name of the message’s sender.

“Oh, who’s that? Chenle?”

Jisung covers the phone with his hand right away and grabs it away from Donghyuck’s reach as far as possible as the latter tries to snatch the phone from the owner. Renjun though, reacts immediately to the mentioned name by looking up at the two fighting over the phone.

“Guys,” he tries. “Guys.” He stands up and lets the chair behind him make a noise as he does, which not only stops the two from flailing their arms around, but also grabs attention of some other students around them.

“Oh, Injun. Sorry.” Donghyuck scratches his not-actually-itchy head.

Renjun looks at the two of them back and forth before settling back down to his seat. “I just want to ask who’s that friend of yours,” he gestures to Jisung’s phone.

“Ah, Chenle?” Jisung throws a scandalized look at Donghyuck first (who responds with a similar look) before focusing back on Renjun. “He’s my new friend in the dance academy I recently start attending. He’s Chinese too, you probably know him, Hyung.”

“Is Zhong Chenle his full name?”

Jisung widens his eyes as he claps both his hands. “Oh, yes, that’s right. I have pictures with him too, you want to see?”

Renjun nods to the offer, and Jisung immediately searches for the picture on the phone, which grabs the attention of the boys around him. Then he shows it once he finds the said picture.

“It’s really him,” Renjun says.

“How did you know him?” Donghyuck asks in uncharacteristically careful manner.

“Well... I used to live in his house.”

( _“Welcome to your new home, Renjun.”_

_The said boy looked around the house. He encountered the living room first and foremost, which was quite big, expected from such a rich couple. There were a few other kids playing together in the living room as well, and they all stopped from playing as they saw Renjun’s arrival. One of them, the littlest of them all, ran up to him and offered him the warmest smile he’d ever seen after awhile._

_“Are you going to be my new brother?”_

_Renjun didn’t answer nor did he actually smile back. He was still emotionally unavailable, but it didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate the warmth that the boy offered to him. He was just not ready to respond yet. But his unresponsiveness didn’t really put the boy off. He offered a hand to him after that._

_“My name is Zhong Chenle, hopefully we’ll get along!”_ )

“Oh, how cute,” Donghyuck cooes.

“Then does he know about that ability of yours, hyung? You guys lived together when you were young so there’s no way he won’t know, right?”

Renjun shrugs. “Well, yeah.”

“Then why don’t you live together anymore?” As Donghyuck asks the question, the school bell starts ringing, which prompts Renjun to smile in amusement.

“That’s for another bedtime story, I guess?” He pats his friend’s shoulder, who just scowls in disappointment.

“Damn it! You better wait after school, Hwang Injun!”

When he enters the classroom again, of course, he meets with Jaemin. He looks like he’s been waiting for Renjun with that bright smile of his. _Very annoyingly bright_ , as Renjun would like to emphasize.

“Have you thought of my offer?” Jaemin starts.

“I have, but I haven’t finished the thought yet.” He looks at Jaemin sideways. “But why didn’t you come to our table today?”

“Oh, miss me already?” This time, Jaemin’s smile is getting really too bright for Renjun that he responds with an attack from his elbow which unfortunately misses. (He’s not sure what is it that he wants to attack anyway.)

“I want to ask something though.”

“What is it?”

“Is... Is Jeno okay with it?”

“With you moving to my apartment? He’s the one who told me to just proceed with care.”

“Really?” Renjun is surprised to hear that.

(“I don’t mind,” is what Jeno answers immediately to the pondering thoughts in Jaemin’s head. The younger of the two is startled to hear that, more because he just snapped back from his thoughts to reality.

“Look, even if I can’t read your mind, I can already tell. You keep cleaning up the empty guest room for these few days, I don’t know what keeps you from asking me right away.”

Jaemin widens his eyes comically. _Are you seriously saying you really don’t know what keeps me from asking you right away because I think we all know why._

“You’re my best friend, Injun is nice, so why not?” He punches Jaemin’s arm lightly. “I think it’ll be harder to convince him though.”)

“Oh, I see. That will be...” Then Renjun seems to realize something as he starts shaking his head in disapproval. “No. I don’t like my head getting read by anyone.”

“He can stop it if he wants to,” Jaemin offers, which intrigues Renjun again. “Really?”

“Yeah, I told you he’s like so much more advanced with that power of his. I can only wish I could catch up with him.”

Jaemin pouts as his shoulders move downwards. Renjun somehow feels disheartened by that, and he starts biting his lips, feeling a bit ridiculous by what he just felt. Then he steals a glance at Jaemin again, who starts to immerse himself in the lesson the teacher is explaining at the moment. The smaller of the two lets out a breath and moves his hand quickly to pat the taller’s arm. Just lightly.

The small gesture does make Jaemin turn to his seatmate though. Renjun acknowledges the returning stare and shrugs once.

“You’re doing well enough in my opinion.”

Remembering how Jaemin has repeatedly stopped time for him to let him have some sleep, he suppresses a smile about to come up on his lips. _It’s kind of cute, actually._

The bright smile returns to Jaemin’s lips as well.

There are quite a lot of things that Renjun has expected while working on his part-time jobs. Meeting his friends in the café is like a given. Meeting Jaemin, that’s even much more of a bigger possibility. (It is also kind of worrying him because the boy recently shows some worrying changes in his coffee preference, I mean, more than five shots of Americano in a cup?)

The only possibility that he has never considered (and he wondered why he never did before) is meeting Jeno.

Sure, he sometimes met the boy in the café too, aside from school, of course. But all the time, Jaemin was also there with him. Or Donghyuck. But he never shows up in the café alone, until today.

Upon his entrance, Renjun immediately feels nervous. It can’t compete with how he felt when he saw ghosts in his early years. At least ghosts are not able to read minds.

“One iced chocolate.”

Renjun receives the drink and the direction and immediately dreads it as he sees the one sitting on the table in the direction.

When he arrives at the table, Jeno greets him with the usual warm eye smile.

“Busy today, too, I guess?”

“Yeah.” After putting the drink, Renjun plans on running away quickly from there, but gets stopped by Jeno.

“I want to talk to you though.”

Renjun only stares at the other boy with poker face, even though there are a million things running through his head at the moment. _Shit, he must’ve found out already what I’m thinking right now._

“It’s okay, right? I mean, Jaemin has always stolen some time for some talk with you while working here after all.”

“That’s... are you talking about him stealing time literally or figuratively?”

Jeno lets out a chuckle. “Both, I guess. I don’t think your boss will mind if you just spare some time talking to me.”

That makes Renjun turn to Johnny, standing behind the counter and apparently watching him. He gives a smile and a little wave to him, which he returns with a nervous smile.

“You even know that’s my boss without me telling you about it,” Renjun says matter-of-factly as he sits across Jeno. “You really know everything, don’t you.”

“No, that’s not true,” the telepath shakes his head. “I’m not even reading your mind right now.”

Renjun stares at Jeno suspiciously. “Really?”

The other boy just nods.

“How do I know you’re not reading my mind right now?”

“Hmm... I guess we can do that. Rock paper scissors. I’m just going to make a wild guess what it is your hand’s making under the table.”

Renjun looks down at his hands folded on his own lap. Then he looks back at Jeno, who looks to be satisfied with his own suggestion.

“Are you done choosing between rock, paper, and scissors?”

_If he’s not reading my mind he should’ve known if I already decided._ “Uh, yes,” the smaller of the two answers as he looks down at his hand again.

“Then, I shall pick...” Jeno takes his time to think, and he also thinks really carefully or just seems like it, because Renjun still can’t tell if he’s faking it or not. “Let’s see... are you making scissors with your hand?”

The smaller boy looks down at his hand balled in a fist. Then he raises it slowly to show it.

“Oh,” Jeno exclaims as he seems to be disappointed. “You didn’t just change that just because I said you’d make scissors, right?”

“Uh, no.”

“Indeed. If I have none of my powers, I’ll be really bad at predicting stuff like this.”

“Ah... yeah, I guess.” Renjun decides to get up at that moment. “I think I’ll go back to work now.”

“Wait.” The waiter just turns when he hears Jeno again. He does give him a response by turning back again though.

“I just want to say... you don’t have to feel burdened by moving to our apartment.” Jeno offers him just a simple smile that aims to give some reassurance. “You are always welcome in our place, whether you’re really moving in or just visiting us. Jaemin will also be really happy to see you around much more often. Also, you can pay us back, too.”

Renjun has a puzzled look on his face. “Pay you back?”

“Yeah. You can help Jaemin practice with his powers.”

The elder of the two is about to protest when he remembers again the instances in which Jaemin uses his powers. Some of those instances weren’t all that nice for the boy, which does worry Renjun a little bit.

“Why me though?”

“Because he likes you?”

The answer makes Renjun choke that he launches into coughing. Renjun remembers again that one time Jaemin also said that. That he likes him. The memory sort of gives him a little embarrassment and some heat to his cheeks, especially since he just thought of that moment right in front of a telepath. He’s just hoping Jeno is still not into his mind.

“You don’t have to remind that to my face, you know.” Renjun looks around awkwardly, and thankfully, a new customer enters the café, and he takes the chance to bail. “I already told him I’ll consider anyway,” he spits before completely leaving the table with staggering steps, which amuses the telepath. A lot.

“Hey, Jaemin.”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking if I can... visit your place today.”

“Oh?” Jaemin’s face immediately brightens up like a switched-on lamp when he hears that. “Of course!”

Donghyuck frowns at the numbers displayed on the white paper in front of him. He doesn’t usually hate math with passion, but this exam might just make it so. He shakes his head slowly as he sneaks a glance at the student sitting on the row next to his in front of him.

_Jeno, help me out with number 14,_ he thinks out loud. Surely, that evokes a reaction as the said boy slightly turns his head towards him, but only slightly. He can somehow hear the boy’s dry chuckle as a short reply comes back to him in his head.

_Nope._

Donghyuck wants to snap at something at this moment, but he chooses to take a deep breath and let it out shakily instead.

_By the way, let’s go to my apartment after school._

The bad mood immediately changes to a fairly neutral one, as Donghyuck would like to insist. _Your apartment?_

_Yeah. Injun is coming over to check our place, and as his best friend, you should come and look out for him too, right?_

In the corner of his eyes, Donghyuck catches Jeno turning slightly to face him with that little smile of his. _If you’re going to be like this, how am I going to say no? Oh, did I already say that out loud in my head?_

Jeno doesn’t respond with his mental voice, but Donghyuck has just probably made the boy laugh softly with that thought of his, evident from the shaking shoulders.

At this rate, Donghyuck wonders if Jeno can control people’s emotions too.

The apartment that Jaemin and Jeno live in is indeed located not too far from anything. It’s close to the school, the café, and even the gosiwon Injun lives in. The building looks very recently built too and of course, expensive-looking. When they reach the said apartment on the 5th floor, the feel changes to a more homey one. The inside of their apartment is very nice but also very normal with boring white and beige interior, which is sort of underwhelming for guys with superpowers in Donghyuck’s standard. But it’s not like he’s going to live in there, and he can see Injun trying to suppress his amazement as he looks around the living room, the first room they see.

“How do you think?” Jaemin asks as he looks expectantly at Renjun.

Donghyuck was about to answer instead, but someone suddenly holds his right hand. His eyes widen in surprise to see Jeno shaking his head with somewhat teasing kind of smile.

“It’s, uh, alright,” Renjun answers a few seconds late, very obviously trying to downplay his amazement.

“Really? Then how about I show you around?” Jaemin looks very excited as he leads Renjun to the corridor where the bedrooms are all located. Donghyuck is still standing at the door with Jeno, and they’re still holding hands. And they’re not saying any word, not even mentally, a situation that doesn’t sit well with Donghyuck.

“Uh, I guess you guys are rich, huh?” Donghyuck starts, trying to elicit some laughter from himself.

“I thought you think we’re boring.”

“Huh?” Donghyuck turns to Jeno in nothing short of scandalous. “I didn’t say that.”

“Right, you didn’t. Wanna take a look too?”

“Why should I? I’m not the one who’ll be living in here.”

“Then should we just watch something on TV there?” Jeno points at the television in the living room.

“Yeah, I guess, to save this boring atmosphere.”

“You mean awkward atmosphere.”

“I said what I said!”

Meanwhile, Jaemin is currently showing his bedroom to Renjun. He lets the smaller boy in first, taking in of the surroundings. It has the usual furniture of a bedroom, with a bed (a king-sized one, mind you), a desk for study, and a closet. The room is kept quite neat and the sunshine from the outside seep in between the transparent cloth of the curtain. Renjun looks around in delight, or so it seems.

“What do you think of my room?” Jaemin asks eventually after long seconds watching Renjun.

“It’s nice.” Renjun has a ghost of a smile on his lips which doesn’t go unnoticed by Jaemin. The taller of the two smiles in relief as he circles his arms around Renjun’s shoulders.

“Should we look at your—I mean, the guest room?”

Renjun doesn’t really have much choices as Jaemin, again, excitedly brings him to the said room. The room this time doesn’t have direct access to the sunlight, but once the lights are on, he can see again that it’s another well-kept room with similar interior as the one in Jaemin's room but with less of a life inside, obviously from the lack of use.

He takes his time looking around the room, which makes Jaemin feel more nervous than he was when he showed his room. It’ll be Renjun’s room after all if he gets to move in, so it’s only natural that he hopes the boy will like it.

“I think it’ll be a lot nicer if the door is let opened from time to time to make the air less stuffy, but otherwise, it’s fine.”

“Does that mean you’re going to stay here?”

Renjun looks flustered. “N-no? I’m just giving you some suggestion?”

“Oh, is it?” Jaemin walks over to where Renjun stands, and then starts bringing his face closer to the other boy’s, who reacts by pulling away just slightly, but that’s because he’s surprised by the sudden proximity of Jaemin’s face from his.

“Did you see... anything then?”

Renjun tries to brave himself to look in Jaemin’s eyes. They look very clear and bright, but he can see there’s a little bit of concerned look within them.

“No... I guess?”

Jaemin straightens himself up immediately as he claps his hands together. “Great!” His smile never fades from his face, Renjun swears in his mind. “How about we look go back outside?”

They go back to the living room where Jeno and Donghyuck are sitting side by side on the couch, their eyes keen on the television. Jeno does notice their presence, but Donghyuck looks so serious while watching what seems to be a western movie on the TV. From Renjun’s point of view, he can see Jaemin and Jeno probably exchanging conversation inside their mind, seen from their head movement.

Eventually, Donghyuck acknowledges the two of them as well. “Injun! How was the tour of the apartment? Is it alright?”

“Well, yeah...” Renjun tries to look nonchalant, but then Jaemin has to put his arms around his shoulders again. Then he smiles very close from his face again.

“He likes my room!” Jaemin declares. The whole gesture just somehow makes Renjun turn pink on the face. Jaemin though just pulls Renjun to sit together in the living room. Donghyuck moves to sit beside his best friend.

“Did you see anything weird around the house? If there are any ghosts around here, you have to tell me!”

“If there are any ghosts here, what would you do then?”

“Well— I don’t know, call a priest to chase them away?”

“Hey, it’s our apartment,” Jaemin protests. “Besides, Renjun already said there’s nothing here. Right?”

Renjun turns to Jaemin’s smiling face. He shows a small reassuring smile as he nods. That also makes Jaemin grin even wider.

“See what I told you about?”

“Oh. Then are you really going to move in here?” Renjun turns to Donghyuck who looks at him curiously. The former just shrugs in response.

“Of course he’s going to move in!” Jaemin chirps in.

“Hey, I’m not asking you. Didn’t you see him just do this?” Donghyuck imitates the shoulders movement that Renjun did earlier.

“It’s not a no answer either!”

“Hey, just because you guys have Netflix subscription here doesn’t mean that he’ll be easily tempted by the offer. Though I guess that’s not a bad thing to consider too, I guess...”

_So you’re the one I’ve always heard about._

In the midst of Jaemin and Donghyuck’s little bickering, Renjun hears such a faint whisper that prompts him to look behind him, towards the corridor where the bedrooms are. He’s a little shocked by that, but was it just an illusion or— but he didn’t see anything there earlier though?

“Injun, what’s wrong?”

Jaemin and Donghyuck have stopped fighting, probably noticing Renjun’s sudden movement since he’s sitting in between as well. Renjun just shakes his head, trying to form another reassuring smile.

“Nothing.” He notices Jeno staring at him with an unreadable expression. It feels like the boy has just seen a glimpse of his mind as well. _I thought he wouldn’t read my mind while I’m here._

“Shall we go out and eat? Injun, you’re going back to work, right?” Jeno changes the subject, his smile coming back to place. Renjun looks confused by the sudden change.

“Oh, right... let’s eat out and then after that we hang out in Injun’s café!” Jaemin looks at everyone for approval, and they all nod in agreement except for Renjun.

“I’ll be late for work though—”

“Your boss will be okay to wait for you for some more minutes, I’m sure of it,” Jaemin says as he pulls Renjun from the couch. “I’ll buy some time for you if I have to.”

Renjun just sighs.

“Hey, Chenle,” Jisung starts once they finally have a little break from the dance practice.

“Huh?” The blonde boy looks up with questioning looks. Jisung takes a seat next to him on the floor.

“You know someone who goes by the name Hwang Injun? Or Huang... Ren? Jun?”

“Oh!” Chenle slaps Jisung’s thigh, making the younger surprised and also feeling a little bit of pain. “How do you know that name?”

“Ah, see,” Jisung starts to explain as he rubs his thigh, “Injun hyung is in the same school as mine. My cousin’s friend.”

“Oh! Wow... the world is indeed small...”

“So you know right? Because he knows you.”

“Of course he knows me! I’ll kill him if he suddenly doesn’t know me!”

Jisung flinches a little bit. “Oh, that’s... scary...”

“Hey, I’m just kidding!” Chenle laughs as he slaps Jisung’s thigh for some more. The younger lets more noises in pain, also mixed with a little bit of protest. “How is he doing these days? Is he doing... alright?” Chenle turns to be more thoughtful as he finishes thinking out loud.

“Actually...” Jisung rubs his chin as if in deep thought, “Well, you know, he can see ghosts...”

“Yeah. Is it still bothering him?”

Jisung clicks his tongue. “I’m kinda curious. How were you guys used to be?”

“Hmm.” Chenle folds his arms on his chest. “That’s a really long story.”


End file.
